Attend the annual spring Bulb Show
Stockbridge— Berkshire Botanical Garden’s annual Bulb Show begins on February 24 and runs through March 10. The Fitzpatrick Conservatory is open every day from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. The show, which is free and open to the public.
The Bulb Show will feature thousands of bulbs in dozens of varieties, each one identified, including an evolving collection of traditional New England favorites such as narcissus, tulips and grape hyacinths together with hardy varieties new to the show.
“The Bulb Show is the Garden’s annual springtime gift to the community,” said Eric Ruquist, the Garden’s director of horticulture. “It’s an opportunity to see unique pairings of flowering bulbs and to get a unique glimpse of early spring.”
Berkshire Botanical Garden is located at 5 West Stockbridge Rd., Stockbridge. For more information, visit BerkshireBotanical.org or call 413-298-3926.
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Four-concert festival celebrates composer György Kurtág
Annandale-on-Hudson, N.Y. — Bard College Conservatory of Music hosts “Signs, Games & Messages,” an annual three-day, four-concert festival that explores the music of Hungarian composer György Kurtág (b. 1926), as well as that of composers who influenced or were influenced by him. Performances take place at Olin Hall, Chapel of the Holy Innocents, and the Bitó Conservatory Building Performance Space on Friday, February 24 at 8 p.m., Saturday, February 25 at 1 p.m. and 7 p.m., and on Sunday, February 26 at 2 p.m. Admission is free for all performances.
This year’s festival begins on Friday, February 24 with Pierre-Laurent Aimard performing solo piano works by Schubert and Kurtág. The second program, during the afternoon on February 25, revolves around Bartok’s “Mikrokosmos,” performed by Bard Prep Division students ages 8-16. That same evening, the third program centers on spirituality, juxtaposing Kurtág’s quartet “Officium breve in memoriam Andreae Szervánszky” with Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 15, both of which confront the reality of death and the possibility of renewed life. The final program on February 26 contrasts two song cycles about women: Schumann’s “Frauenliebe und -Leben” and Kurtág’s “Messages of the Late Miss R.V. Troussova,” performed by pianist Kayo Iwama, members of the Bard Vocal Ensemble, and the Bard Contemporary Ensemble, conducted by Benjamin Hochman.
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Hudson Jazz Festival hosts a community dinner with livestreamed jazz concert by Endea Owens
Hudson, N.Y. — The Hudson Jazz Festival continues with a performance by Endea Owens at Hudson Hall, along with a Community Dinner and communal concert livestream viewing on Sunday, February 25 at 3 p.m.
Heralded as a “powerhouse of a showman” (Glide Magazine), a “legitimate jazz triple threat” (Critical Jazz) and a drummer who “take[s] a back seat to no one” (New York Times), performer, producer and educator Ulysses Owens Jr. goes the limit in the jazz world and beyond. From GRAMMY award-winning performances with Christian McBride’s acclaimed Trio and Big Band to world tours with Kurt Elling and Joey Alexander, Owens’s artistic command of percussion has earned him positions in some of the most successful jazz ensembles of the 21st century. Generation Y is a quintet comprised of the most dynamic young jazz musicians on the scene. Mentored by Owens, this new generation of young lions is dedicated to moving the music forward with a love of the jazz tradition.
On Friday, February 24 at 7 p.m. see vocalists Lucy Yeghiazaryan and Vanisha Gould perform “Dreaming Home.” Called “one of the most compelling and ambitious jazz vocal albums of the year” by JazzWax, up and coming New York-based vocalists Lucy Yeghiazaryan and Vanisha Gould’s collaborative 2021 release “In Her Words” is described as an “unabashedly intimate recording offering a glimpse into the private lives of women told from their unique perspectives”. A mix of new compositions and interpretations of jazz standards, each artist simultaneously breaks new ground while referencing the past with their warm, 1950’s inspired vocal styles.
The Hudson Jazz Festival continues with a performance by Endea Owens at Hudson Hall, along with a Community Dinner and communal concert livestream viewing on Sunday, February 25 at 3 p.m.
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Tibetan art shown with contemporary art at WCMA
Williamstown— “Shared Waters: Contemporary Artists in Dialogue with Tibetan Art from the Jack Shear Collection,” an exhibition at Williams College Museum of Art, is open to visitors now. An opening celebration will be held on Friday, February 24 from 4 to 6 p.m. There will be time for viewing the exhibition and mingling from 4 to 5 p.m. before a public conversation between curator Ariana Maki and two contemporary artists who have artwork in the show, Marie-Dolma Chophel, and Palden Weinreb, begins at 5 p.m. The conversation will be live-streamed on Zoom (register here) and their YouTube channel.
Traditional Tibetan Buddhist rolled paintings, or thangka, are displayed in conversation with contemporary works by featured artists based around the world, including Marie-Dolma Chophel, Dedron, Nyema Droma, Gonkar Gyatso, Tenzin Norbu Lama, Kesang Lamdark, Tashi Norbu, Karma Phuntsok, Pema Rinzin, Rabkar Wangchuk, and Palden Weinreb. While some draw inspiration from Tibetan cultural markers, including repurposing or reimagining Buddhist imagery, others source inspiration completely outside those frames. Exploring themes of identity, consumerism, place, and cultural expectations, the artists employ a diverse range of media, from ground mineral pigments to acrylic paint, digital photography, mixed media works, and resin cast sculptures.
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Multidisciplinary artist Emilio Rojas exhibit at Usdan Gallery
Bennington, Vt. — On Thursday, February 23 from 6 to 8 p.m. attend the opening reception for Emilio Rojas exhibition “tracing a wound through my body” at Bennington College’s VAPA Usdan Gallery.
The first traveling survey of the multidisciplinary practice of Emilio Rojas, “tracing a wound through my body” examines the artist’s reckonings with the legacies of colonial and border traumas.
For Rojas, such reckoning renders palpable visible and invisible wounds through the radically political instrumentalization of his body. Artworks ranging from live performances and interventions to video, photography, sculpture, installation and poetry relate to Rojas’s migratory experience and his rigorous research-based practice. Drawing upon queer and decolonized methodologies, his performative works interrogate structures of colonialism and border politics. The exhibition takes place in a moment in which nativist rhetoric and xenophobic immigration legislation in the United States and beyond deepens wounds already open. Rojas’s practice not only confronts the historical precedents for such trauma but also speculates upon Chicana cultural theorist Gloria E. Anzaldúa’s proposition of the wound transforming into a pathway for healing.
This event is free and open to the public.
